Prison
by ShardsandAshes
Summary: For some, prison isn't so much a place for losing freedom as it is finding freedom.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

**AN:**** This AU story was written for Paimpont and the Triad Diversity Boot Camp. The pairing is Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Malfoy/Kingsley Shacklebolt. The prompt was "prison." **

"As far as prisons go, this one isn't that bad," Lucius admitted playfully as he lay on his back on the large, comfortable bed.

Wearing little more than a robe that matched her eyes, Narcissa laughed.

"I doubt that the poor Minister of Magic-to-be who is stuck guarding us would agree," she said, indicating the dark skinned auror.

Kingsley Shacklebolt looked unhappy indeed as he stood with his back to them with his arms folded tightly across his chest. Even without seeing his face, Lucius could tell that the man was troubled, and he had no doubt that their presence wasn't helping any. The Malfoys' wands were in his keeping, and they were forbidden from doing any magic while they waited for their trial. Unfortunately, the magical wards on the "high status prisoners" cells also blocked Kingsley from casting any sort of silencing or obscuring charm. Whatever activities the Malfoys got up to, he was going to be forced to witness.

Narcissa studied their guard as though he were some sort of exhibit. Finally, she sighed.

"This simply won't do. Lucius, shall we?" Narcissa asked.

Her husband looked startled, than pleased. Once they had conceived an heir, the two of them had opened their marriage to others, albeit discretely. It was often the way of pureblood marriages, especially when the marriage was arranged as theirs had been.

Of course, their marriage had actually resulted in them falling in love so their openness was simply because they enjoyed it. They had always been choosy with their partners, but they'd only become emotionally attached to one of them. Severus's death had hit them both harder than they had expected, and one of the main reasons they wanted to return to the Manor was so they could wake his portrait. It would be better than nothing.

But in the meantime, they were caught up in the giddiness of their family's survival of the battle and the knowledge that the trial was a mere formality. They had already been assured that they were here only because procedures needed to be observed in order to avoid another Sirius Black debacle. After all, the wizarding world needed their gold, and none other than Harry Potter himself had agreed to support their acquittal publicly. The young man could have asked for the moon, and half of wizarding England would have killed themselves trying to fly high enough to get it for him.

But there was at least a week before their trial took place. And sleeping with the man who would become the Minister of Magic would do nothing but help their family. However, what Lucius knew was on Narcissa's mind was the elder wizard's obvious exhaustion and loneliness. Between the two of them, there were very few wizards and witches that the Malfoys did not know everything about. Kingsley was no exception. They knew that he was from an African pureblood line, that he was the last surviving member of that line, and that he likely had never had a romantic relationship with anybody. He, like many of the veteran aurors, was married to his job, and dalliances were just not something he took part in. War had disrupted what friendships he had. Moody, Bones, Lupin, and Tonks were all dead, and Minerva was wrapped up in fixing Hogwarts.

Kingsley Shacklebolt was alone. That they pitied him was a given. That they knew that he would not want pity from them was also a given. That they didn't care was a foregone conclusion.

Malfoys always got what they wanted, and Black blood was temptation incarnate.

Narcissa slipped up behind Kingsley, not doubting for one minute that he heard her approaching. When she laid a hand on his arm, he did not show any surprise. He merely sighed and turned slowly toward them. Now, both Malfoys could see Kingsley's face. The auror had never learned to guard his expression, and it was clear that his loneliness was consuming him with a vengeance.

Before she could think better of it, Narcissa was pulling Kingsley's head down to hers. The kiss startled the elder man enough that he did not resist. When she let go of him, Narcissa laughed at the pure shock on his face.

"That's usually the way this kind of thing starts, Minister," Narcissa said.

Kingsley's shock became a scowl, "Don't call me that! I never wanted it!" He took a breath and lowered his voice. "My name is Kingsley."

"We shall call you Kingsley, then, at least when we are alone." The shock was back on Kingsley's face as Lucius approached him. There was also hesitation. After all, Narcissa had just kissed him right in front of Lucius.

The blond aristocrat read his expression easily. "Kingsley, how can you be a war veteran and still so damn innocent? She kissed you because she wanted to. As it happens, I found it rather appealing." Lucius came to within a breath of the elder man. "I found it very appealing indeed." For the second time in five minutes, the auror found himself being soundly kissed, this time by Lucius.

When the Malfoys had finally both let him go, he just stood there for several moments, unsure what to do next. Romantic situations were alien to him, much less those involving more than two people. Helplessly, he looked at his would-be lovers.

Lucius laughed without bitterness for the first time in a long time. He leaned over to whisper in Kingsley's ear.

"Don't worry, Kingsley. Your only duty now is to feel. Let us take care of you." Lucius clasped one of his unresisting hands as Narcissa took his other. They waited. Swallowing hard, Kingsley nodded.

It quickly became clear that the elder wizard had never been intimate with anyone, but the Malfoys remembered with bittersweet affection how innocent Severus had been the first time he came to their bed. They knew how to calm frightened lovers, even those who were too proud to admit their fear. So they took each touch slowly and gently, taking care not to push Kingsley too much. It was an odd sort of relief to make love tenderly and freely instead of the hurried, rushed encounters that had been a fact of their captive lives under the Dark Lord.

Kingsley hesitated when Lucius and Narcissa began to strip, and so they put on an impromptu show for him, all play and sensual teasing that finally began to relax their insecure lover. By the time they were naked, they were crawling all over him, kissing and touching him until he begged them to hurry. His hands were shaking too badly to help, so they removed his scarlet auror robes with the same playfulness that they had used on each other. When their new lover was finally revealed, the Malfoys found themselves more than pleased. Kingsley Shacklebolt was well-muscled and extremely well-endowed. When he finally began to touch them back though, his hesitation was clear, and those strong fingers fumbled awkwardly in his innocence. With great care, they took him in hand.

He was perfection, and for that night, he was all theirs. And so, as they had done with Severus, they took him into their arms.

For that night, they were not alone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

**AN:**** I couldn't seem to let this triad go and have decided to continue this story. This is definitely not the end, but I'm not sure how many chapters there will be. Here's a special word of thanks to jennybenny2845 who left me an especially nice review.**

Inevitably, Kingsley's auror instincts woke him first the next morning. For a few moments, he simply lay there, staring at nothing, savoring the unfamiliar but not unwelcome experience of waking up with two sets of arms wrapped around him. Lucius and Narcissa had both fallen asleep on their sides, facing him. They each had a leg over him, pinning him down, but he was surprised to find that he didn't feel uncomfortable. He searched idly for the right word.

Safe, that was it. For the first time that he could remember, he felt completely safe, and it had nothing to do with wards and spells and everything to do with the couple who held him. Kingsley finally slipped his arms loose so that he could reach out and caress his lovers as they slept. Their beauty made his breath catch, but what had utterly amazed him was that they found him equally beautiful. He had never thought of himself as an attractive man. He was too tall, too strong, and his towering form bore far too much resemblance, in his mind at least, to Gregory Goyle's father.

But they had treated him like an exquisite jewel last night and all but worshipped him as though he were a god. Kingsley had thought that he knew all that was worth knowing of the world, but they had proved him so very wrong. Overwhelmed, he had been unable at first to take what they offered. So he had given instead. He had given them his body, given them his virginity, given them every first time he had never had. And he had given them his embarrassment over his inexperience, his shame in his appearance, the exhaustion of his soul, and the loneliness of his heart.

They had taken it all and had made sure that he received a hundredfold more in return. As his lovers began to stir, Kingsley realized that, regardless of the consequences, he would never regret what had happened between them.

Lucius was the first to open his eyes, and Narcissa quickly followed.

"Good morning," Lucius said. He made quite a picture, long blond hair tousled, grey eyes blinking sleepily at Kingsley.

Narcissa propped her head up on her arm. "Did you sleep well?" she asked. Kingsley tried very hard to ignore Narcissa's lovely state of disarray, but his body seemed to have other plans. He glanced away in embarrassment only to find that the object of his attention was already moving to rectify the situation.

"You don't have to," he protested, but Narcissa straddling him as Lucius claimed his lips effectively silenced him.

"But we want to," Lucius's breath was a whisper against his skin as his lips took a leisurely path down his neck. "Let us please you."

Needless to say, breakfast was a lost cause, and only Kingsley's growling stomach made them stop for lunch. The shower that followed got them all clean eventually, but the Malfoys made certain that the auror first learned just what the three of them could do in a shower besides take a shower. As the sun started to set, Lucius and Narcissa lay on the bed, now clean and made up courtesy of Kingsley since years of living on his own had resulted in him being adept at household charms. Narcissa and Lucius were used to relying on house elves, and Kingsley found himself resolving to fill in some gaps in their education once they got their wands back. Then he realized that he was already making long term plans with them in the picture.

Stricken, Kingsley sat down abruptly.

Of course, Lucius noticed. "What is the matter, Kingsley?"

The auror swallowed hard. "What happens now?"

For a moment, there was silence. "What do you want to happen?" Lucius finally asked.

Kingsley looked first at him and then at Narcissa. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Embarrassed, he tried to look away again, but Narcissa reached out and gently caught his face in her hands.

"I don't know what I want," Kingsley finally said. The lie felt uncomfortable on his tongue, and Lucius laughed softly.

"It's becoming clearer now why you didn't want to be Minister. You don't have the temperament for it. That lie was as obvious as one of my peacocks." He sobered, and his grey eyes searched Kingsley's dark ones, pinning him like sticking charms. "You know exactly what you want, Kingsley. But your bloody conscience, otherwise known as 'what a Minister should do,' is busy insisting on what you ought to do for the 'greater good,' as it were."

The auror swallowed hard and sighed heavily. "You are asking me to be selfish."

"No, Kingsley," Narcissa said, tracing her fingers down his pierced ear. He shivered at her touch. "We are asking you to realize that you have the right to be selfish."

Kingsley was silent for a time. Then he whispered, "I don't know how to do that."

Lucius pressed his lips to the ear that Narcissa had just been caressing as Narcissa climbed into Kingsley's lap.

"We can teach you if you'd like." Lucius paused, his grey eyes holding a gentleness that no living person other than Narcissa and perhaps Draco would have associated with the pureblood aristocrat. "Will you let us try?"

Kingsley blinked rapidly, trying to reassure himself that a few tender gestures had not actually brought tears to his eyes. It had been a long time, far too long, since he had received tenderness from anyone. Romantic partnerships, either with another auror or a civilian, were rare in the aurors, and the higher one rose in the ranks, the less likely they became. Platonic friendship was about the most one could hope for, and it was fiercely valued. That he had not been able to save Alastor, Amelia, and Tonks enveloped him with nearly crippling guilt, and the only reason that he hadn't immediately refused to become Minister was because he knew that every one of his absent friends would have insisted on him as the only person with any chance of succeeding in the position.

He still remembered his last meeting with Amelia, her chaste kiss administered to his cheek with her standing on tiptoe. He recalled Alastor's last joke and the last time he had tugged on Tonks' bubblegum pink hair. They were all gone now.

A solitary tear broke free and slipped down his face. Narcissa kissed it away, and with her kiss, she also took the embarrassment that came with it.

Lucius smiled sadly. "You have your ghosts. We have ours. This much at least, we understand."

Kingsley knew that it was perhaps the truest thing that Lucius had ever said.

The auror startled his lovers as he suddenly grabbed for Lucius, pulling the other man into an awkward but passionate kiss. It was the first time he'd taken the initiative, the first time he'd admitted, by his actions if not by his words, that he needed this.

And then the words came too.

"You know what I need right now," he hissed into Lucius's willing mouth. "Make me forget!"

Kingsley's blunt nails dug into the younger wizard's scalp, tangling in and tugging on his blond hair, even as Narcissa busied herself with another part of Kingsley's anatomy. Kingsley's words were the last coherent thing that either he or the Malfoys said that night.

Together, they kept their ghosts at bay a little longer.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

**AN:**** I've probably altered a few canon details in this chapter. Also, this chapter shifts the focus to Narcissa because jennybenny2845 asked me for more contribution from Lady Malfoy.**

"Does he always sleep so deeply?" Kingsley asked, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb Lucius asleep beside him.

Narcissa tried and failed to manage a smile. Her eyes were haunted. "He hasn't since he got back from Azkaban. Even those few times after his escape when Severus was with us, he didn't. Severus wasn't surprised."

"Why not?" Kingsley asked, turning his back to Lucius to face Narcissa.

The lovely woman sighed. "Severus said that Lucius only slept deeply when he felt completely safe. We were in the middle of a war. But Severus and I spoke together when Lucius was absent. He knew as well as I knew that the dementors' only true purpose was to destroy. The sense of safety was one of the most precious things that they destroyed. Of course, Lucius fled from one prison into another, fled to a home that was no longer his and the control of a twisted half-man capable of destroying everyone and everything that was precious to him in an instant."

Kingsley glanced back over his shoulder at the elder Malfoy. Lucius lay as utterly abandoned to sleep as a child. The auror almost smiled.

"Do you suppose he feels safe now?" he whispered.

Narcissa cuddled closer to him, reaching out to trace his face. It seemed to be a habit of hers, and he admitted that the gesture was one that he could get used to. He'd spent his life feeling like the unwanted kin of a giant. He'd never imagined that anyone would make him feel delicate and fragile.

She did. They did. He decided that he liked the feeling a great deal.

"I think," Narcissa said, "that you make him feel safe. You're so light, Kingsley. He spent a year in almost total darkness, literal and otherwise. He craves the light like a moth craves flame. We both do."

Kingsley gaze was troubled. "But if a moth enters the flame, it is destroyed."

"Yes, but if a phoenix burns, it is reborn." There was irony in her blue eyes, but there was also an earnestness that he had not expected to see.

"Do you intend to be a phoenix, Narcissa?" he asked.

She glanced away abruptly, making him wonder if he had somehow overstepped his bounds.

But then she quietly said, "If I tell you that Lucius and I both intend to be phoenixes, would you believe me?"

Kingsley's brown eyes widened slightly. "Have the two of you truly changed so much?"

She met his eyes though her gaze was uncertain. "Perhaps we have."

Kingsley looked her over critically, and the eyes that met hers in that moment were those of the auror, not her lover. She didn't flinch from the scrutiny.

Kingsley sat up, and she followed suit. "I freely admit to being innocent in whatever is between us, Narcissa. But you and Lucius should be well aware that in all other things, I am not naïve."

She smirked, but it lacked its usual sting. "We never said that you were. And in this which is between us, if you so wish, you can have ample time to be the spark that lights our burning day."

The auror's gaze sharpened. "What are you suggesting?"

"I am suggesting that it would look so very noble for the Minister of Magic to volunteer to mentor the leading recipients of the Ministry's pardons, namely, Lucius and me. Inevitably, there will be a clamor for some manner of slap on the wrist for us besides a liberal amount of money. What better way for that to happen than for the Minister of Magic himself to guide the darkest pureblood family in England back to the side of the light? Coincidentally, what better way to insure that you have ample reason to be at Malfoy Manor whenever you like and, if you like, to keep us by your side?"

Kingsley nearly laughed aloud. "You are every bit as cunning as your husband, but I must admit that your suggestion bears further consideration." He sobered immediately. "However, I think the title for darkest pureblood family in England belongs to the Lestranges."

Narcissa stiffened, and Kingsley backtracked. "I'm sorry. It's too soon." He added quietly. "You lost your sister."

She shook her head, shifting to lie against Kingsley. He cradled her, waiting for her to speak.

"She was my sister. That is true. I loved her till the end…almost." Narcissa clasped Kingsley's hand, idly tracing the contours of his fingers. "I watched her commit horrible crimes. I watched her slip into insanity, into a mad obsession with an inhuman destroyer. Even then, I loved her."

The auror stroked her bare shoulder. "What happened?"

In a voice that was suddenly very much the cold Malfoy matriarch the world knew, Narcissa passed her final judgment on Bellatrix Lestrange.

"She crucioed Draco."

Kingsley's hand tightened slightly on Narcissa's shoulder. He had not been privy to that detail until now. That Narcissa had deceived Voldemort to get to her son he had known. But that Bellatrix Lestrange had cast an Unforgivable on her nephew…that he had not known.

"In that moment," she said into the silence, "she was no longer my sister."

Kingsley felt goose bumps rise against Narcissa's pale skin as she shivered for reasons that had nothing to do with being cold. He wrapped his arms around her, reaching out to trace her face the way that she had traced his, and was startled that his fingers were wet.

Narcissa Malfoy was crying.

He drew her closer, coaxing her to lay her head on his shoulder. While the pleasures of the flesh were still something of a mystery to him, comforts of the heart were something he understood. He had kept Alastor company when the old auror's scars and injuries became too great even for the strongest pain potions. He had been Amelia's punching bag when the Death Eaters had taken her family, and he had not breathed a word of her tears that followed later to anyone. He had guarded Tonks when her grief over Alastor's death had resulted in her spending three days straight cycling through every transformation her magic could manage, rendering her defenseless.

He had been there for them all, out of love. And out of love, he held Narcissa as she sobbed, great heaving sobs that shattered every pureblood aristocratic mask she had ever worn. Her tears dripped stinging salt down his bare chest, but he ignored it, rocking her a little as he hummed a tune he'd heard in muggle London. He lost track of time as he sat there, and the hand on his arm startled him.

Lucius smiled sadly. "I've been trying to get her to cry for her sister for the past week, yet somehow, you have managed it."

Kingsley sighed. "She needs to grieve." He paused, scrutinizing Lucius's still too pale face. "I think that you do too."

Lucius was silent for a time. Finally he said, "Permission to grieve is the one thing that my money has not been able to buy me."

Kingsley caught a flash of pain in those grey eyes, and he returned that sad smile. He loosed one arm from around Narcissa and beckoned to Lucius.

"You've given me permission to be selfish." He felt tears stinging his own eyes, but he did not try to restrain them. "Let me give you permission to grieve."

Lucius swallowed hard. "I am my father's son."

Kingsley held the wavering gaze with his own. "Your father isn't here."

Lucius swallowed again, more noisily this time.

"Let me help." Kingsley's next words were almost too soft to hear, but Lucius heard them as loud and clear as if his lover had been shouting.

"I will keep you safe."

The sob that followed shattered the last of Lucius Malfoy's masks as he finally allowed himself to be drawn into Kingsley's strong embrace.


End file.
